Novorossiya

Novorossiya at a Glance

How did it all started- very shortly

By Ukrainian Constitution, one can remove elected president only in these situations: 1. Elected president's death. 2. If elected president refuse to be president. 3. Trough impichment. None of this steps was true in the case of Ukraine. What happened was armed coup, not even revolution.
Yet European Union together with USA supports illegal Kiyev's president at the same time refusing to acknowledge presidents of DPR and LPR, which makes it double standards as if we pretend it was people's will in Kiev and that president is legal, then how comes presidents of 'the rebels' are illegal? They all has the same status- people's will. Anyway, let us look at what happened there:

On May 2, 2014, Ukrainian ultra-right football fans attacked an anti-Kiev protesters’ camp outside the Trade Unions Building in central Odessa. Football hooligans were soon joined by Maidan activists – supporters of the pro-EU February protests in Kiev – and members of the Right Sector group. Violent clashes and a fire in the Trade Union Building led to 48 deaths and several hundred people were injured. (un-official sources claim much bigger numbers of killed; their bodies was said to be burned from head down, chopped into pieces to be impossible to recognize and count to the real numbers)
The Council of Europe’s International Advisory Panel stressed the “deficient quality of the investigation,” saying there were no efforts made until December 2014 to investigate the unexplained delay of over 40 minutes in the arrival of firefighters at the Trade Union Building.

#EuroMaidan revolution: 2014 Ukrainian coup timeline

The Euromaidan rallies began in central Kiev in November 2013 after then-Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovich, postponed the signing of an association agreement with the European Union. The protests came to a head in February the following year as violent clashes between the rioters and police triggered a dramatic change in Ukraine’s history.
Tuesday, February 18
Around 20,000 protesters marched toward the national parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, in what has been dubbed a “peace offensive,” but it soon degenerated into a violent standoff with the police.
Many of those who clashed with law enforcers looked more like well-trained extremists rather than ordinary demonstrators. Wearing black masks, helmets, some also equipped with bulletproof vests, they pelted riot police with rocks and Molotov cocktails, as well as shooting fireworks.
The authorities responded with water cannon and tear gas. Live rounds were reportedly fired by both sides. Violence continued overnight and by morning, at least two dozen people were killed, including up to ten policemen. Hundreds more received injuries.
As protests intensified, the opposition demanded a return to the 2004 constitution, which would make Ukraine a parliamentary, rather than a presidential, republic. The ruling party at the time insisted that the opposition’s demands intrinsically violated the Ukrainian constitution.
Wednesday, February 19
Tensions were high following the deadly events of Tuesday. A huge fire began at the House of Labor Unions, cloaking Maidan (Kiev’s Independence Square) with thick black smoke.
Police checkpoints were set up across Kiev, schools were closed and restrictions on public transport were introduced in a de facto state of emergency.
Away from the capital, rioters looted a depot in western Ukraine, making off with more than a thousand guns. Rioters attacked police and government offices, setting buildings on fire, scattering documents and smashing furniture.
However, a shaky truce was agreed in Kiev between President Yanukovich and the leaders of three top opposition parties – the nationalist Svoboda opposition party, Oleg Tyagnibok, Batkivshchyna opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR) party leader Vitaly Klitschko.
Yet the far-right wing of the Ukrainian opposition refused to observe the truce. The leader of Right Sector (Pravy Sektor) said that the group did not sign any agreements and called for the continuation of the “offensive of the resurgent people.”
Thursday, February 20
The next day of the protest, now known as Bloody Thursday, became the most violent day in Kiev since the World War II.
Rioters ignored the truce and started an early morning revolt against the authorities. Gunfire broke out again on the square, hitting both protesters and police. Many of the victims were shot by snipers from nearby buildings. It’s still not clear, who the shooters were and whose orders they were executing, with both sides still blaming one another.
In the chaos, the rioters managed to push the law enforcers off the Independence Square and back into nearby streets, capturing dozens of police officers. With exact figure still unknown, it’s believed that nearly 100 people could have lost their lives that day alone.
As events got worse, and the demands for ultra-nationalists and radicals to lay down their arms and “return to peaceful protesting” failed, the Interior Ministry officially authorized the use of weapons by law enforcers to “protect citizens, rescue hostages, and counter life-threatening attacks.”
Events became so intense that EU Foreign Ministers from Poland, France and Germany, who were scheduled to meet Yanukovich and the opposition to broker a peace deal, had to leave the Ukrainian capital because of security concerns.
Friday, February 21
After what they themselves called “a night of difficult negotiations” the European foreign ministers brokered a new peace deal. The breakthrough agreement was witnessed by Poland’s Radoslaw Sikorski, France’s Laurent Fabius and Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Yanukovich gave in to the demonstrators’ demands and announced early presidential elections and the return to the constitution of 2004 – with a new coalition government to be formed within 10 days. He also announced a third round of amnesty for all involved in violent rioting and agreed to refrain from imposing a state of emergency, giving protesters up to three days to surrender all illegal weapons.
The Ukrainian parliament in the meantime, banned the use of firearms by law enforcers and voted to pull back troops from Kiev, with over 80 percent of the ruling party’s MPs not showing up for the vote. At the same time a presidential impeachment bill was introduced in the parliament.
During the day police and other security forces began moving out of the capital. By the evening however radical rioters announced that truce or no truce, they were still willing to use force to make the president step down immediately.
The following night Yanukovich fled the capital in fear of his life and shortly after he was ousted from power.
On February 22, 2014, Ukraine's one-chamber Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada voted to impeach Yanukovych before announcing the next presidential election to be held on May 25. Oleksandr Turchynov was appointed Ukraine's acting president.
Some of the country's southeastern regions did not recognize the legitimacy of the new Kiev authorities. From March, supporters of the country's federalization started holding rallies in eastern Ukraine, specifically in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lugansk, demanding referendums on the status of their regions. Then protests spread to several other cities in the Donetsk region, including Slaviansk, Mariupol, Yenakiyevo and Kramatorsk.
Protesters in Donetsk and Kharkiv seized regional administration buildings and in Lugansk they took control of the Ukrainian Security Service regional administration building.
On April 7, 2014, following the seizure of administrative buildings in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lugansk, Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov announced the creation of an anti-crisis headquarters, while also saying that "anti-terrorist measures will be taken against those who have taken up arms."
On April 13, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council decided to launch a full-blown operation with the use of armed forces.
On April 14, Turchinov enacted the National Security and Defense Council's decision to take "emergency measures" to protect the country's territorial integrity.
On April 16, the First Reserve Battalion of the National Guard, which enrolled volunteers from the Maidan Self-Defense Force, was sent to the front line near Slaviansk, which was occupied by the Donbas People's Militia on April 12.
On May 2, an active phase of the special operation against the federalization supporters began in Slaviansk.
On May 11, referendums were held in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions on the status of the regions. As a result, the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (LPR) proclaimed themselves as sovereign states.
Igor Strelkov assumed the command of the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and declared a "counterterrorist operation" regime.
"counterterrorist operation" regime.
On May 25, a snap presidential election was held in Ukraine. There were 21 candidates running for the presidency. The winner was Petro Poroshenko, with 54.7 percent of the vote.
On June 7, Petro Poroshenko was inaugurated as the president of Ukraine.
Poroshenko ordered a week-long ceasefire for all law enforcement, defense and security units involved in the special operation in the east of the country.
The truce lasted 10 days. On July 1, Ukrainian security forces resumed the active phase of the special operation.
On July 4, Ukrainian security forces took control of several cities in the east of the country, including Slaviansk, Kramatorsk, Artyomovsk and Druzhkovka. The militia forces in the north of the Donetsk region retreated to Donetsk, Gorlovka and Snezhnoye.
In mid-July, in a bid to encircle the territory controlled by the self-defense forces (primarily Donetsk, Gorlovka, Makeyevka and Lugansk) and to cut it off from the Russian border, Ukrainian security forces established a 8-10 km "corridor" between the border and the militias. The offensive fell through due to fierce resistance from the militias. Several Ukrainian army units were encircled before running out of ammunition, food and water supplies.
In late July, after running out of ammunition and losing significant numbers of personnel, Ukrainian servicemen started crossing into Russian territory on a mass scale, fleeing militia fire. The biggest "exodus" came late on August 3, when a total of 438 Ukrainian servicemen asked Russian Border Guard Service for asylum.
Following the security forces" retreat from the border, the self-defense forces tightened their control over the border in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
On July 17, Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed over Donetsk. All the 298 people on board, including 193 Dutch nationals, were killed. Kiev authorities accused the militia of shooting down the plane, while the militia said they had no weapons capable of hitting the plane.
In late August, Ukrainian battalions were encircles near Ilovaisk in the Donetsk region, including the headquarters of the Eighth Army Corps, the 28th, the 30th and the 93rd Motorized Infantry Brigades, the 95th Airmobile Brigade, the Aidar, Donbas, and Shakhtarsk territorial defense battalions, attached to them, and the National Guard Azov and Dnepr battalions.
After days of encirclement the government forces reached an agreement with independence supporters, which allowed them to retreat from the besieged town.
On September 5, with Russian and OSCE mediation, the Kiev authorities and the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR signed a ceasefire protocol. The sides also reached an agreement on the withdrawal of heavy weapons, prisoner exchange and humanitarian assistance.
The intensity of hostilities somewhat abated but fighting and attacks continued in certain sectors.
Starting from September, several rounds of talks were held in Minsk between the representatives of Ukraine and the self-proclaimed republics with OSCE and Russian mediation. The sides discussed a ceasefire and its monitoring by the OSCE, the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of demarcation between the security forces and the militias and the exchange of prisoners.
Early in 2015, the conflict in Donbas escalated. On January 18, 2015, Ukrainian forces intensified the shelling of Donetsk. Kiev officially recognized that it was conducting a massive special operation at the city's airport.
Moscow and the self-proclaimed republics repeatedly urged Kiev to comply with the Minsk agreements, providing for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of heavy weapons.
On February 12, the Normandy format talks on the Donbas settlement took place in Minsk with the participation of German, Russian, French and Ukrainian leaders. The consultations of the Trilateral Contact Group, including Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE, were held in the Belarusian capital.
Two documents were agreed during the marathon talks.
The talks produced two documents. The first was the Package of Measures to for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreement, which envisioned a ceasefire and the pullout of heavy artillery from the line of contact to create a 50-150 km security zone. The Agreement also called for a constitutional reform in Ukraine, including decentralization and granting special status to Lugansk and Donetsk.
The second document was a declaration in support of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreement, which was adopted by the Normandy Four leaders.
On February 17, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution in support of the Minsk Agreement to resolve the crisis in Ukraine.
Soon after the ceasefire was declared fighting resumed in Donbas, with the sides blaming each other and claiming they were only returning the fire. Kiev is pondering the possibility of asking the UN and the EU to deploy peacekeepers to Donbas.
According to the United Nations, 6,072 people were killed as a result of the conflict in southeastern Ukraine and another 15,345 people were injured as of March 19, 2015.
More than 1.5 million people have been displaced.
According to President Poroshenko, 1,549 Ukrainian servicemen were killed during the special operation in Donbas, with 64 killed since February 15.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, over 14,000 militia members have been killed in the self-proclaimed republics.
According to the OSCE, since November 2013, seven reporters have been killed in Ukraine, including six in the east of the country, and at least 170 reporters have been injured.
The following Russian journalists were killed in southeastern Ukraine in the line of duty: Rossiya Segodnya's special photo correspondent Andrei Stenin, Channel 1 operator Anatoly Klyan, Rossiya TV network correspondent Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin. All of them were posthumously awarded the Order of Courage in Russia.